FOREIGN students from outside the EU will not be allowed to work while studying in Britain under new government rules.

The move is a bid to stop those who use a place at college as a cover for pursuing full-time employment.

More than 5,000 applied for visas to study in the UK last year and the Home Office has removed sponsorship licences from more than 870 bogus, privately run colleges since 2010 in an effort to root out abuse of the system.

Rules are being tightened after Home Office officials detected increased fraud at some publicly funded colleges and immigration “advisers” advertising college visas as a way to work in the UK.

As well as stripping students of their right to work, reforms will cut further education visas to a maximum of two years.

These will be available only if they are registered at an institution with a formal link to a university.

There will also be English language tests and college students will be prevented from applying for work visas unless they leave the country first.

Hard-working taxpayers who are helping to pay for publicly funded colleges expect them to be providing topclass education, not a back door to a British work visa

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire

The rules will be introduced in Parliament this week.

The news comes as fresh figures reveal that thousands of bogus students who faked English language tests at privately run colleges to flout border controls are still in the UK.

Home Office figures show that in the past year 38,300 students have had their leave to stay in the UK cut short.

Of those, 6,900 have been made the subject of removal decisions, but only 1,590 have been kicked out of the country.

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said of the new rules: “Immigration offenders want to sell illegal access to the UK jobs market and there are plenty of people willing to buy.

“Hard-working taxpayers who are helping to pay for publicly funded colleges expect them to be providing topclass education, not a back door to a British work visa.”

On Friday Business Secretary Sajid Javid said foreign students must not expect to be allowed to stay in Britain after their studies.

Speaking as ministers come under increasing pressure to reduce the numbers of migrants, Mr Javid said: “We need a system that doesn’t allow any abuse when people are using the right to study as a way to settle in Britain.”